General Article Adoption

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What is involved in the adoption of a child?

Adoption is providing a family for a child who can not be brought up by his or her biological parents. Adoption is a legal process that will make the adopted parents fully responsible of the adopted child by law. Legal adoption began in England and Wales in 1962 and in Scotland in 1930, with the first adoption acts. Once an adoption order has been granted, it can not be reversed except in extremely rare circumstances. In the United States, approximately 120,000 children are adopted annually with nearly 50% of the children adopted by relatives.

Over the past decade, the number of babies available for adoption has declined dramatically. The legal and social requirements are numerous whether the adopted child is within the UK or overseas. Couples seeking adoptions have to come to terms with their infertility and may have a period of grief before seeing adoption as a positive alternative. Although most families seek adoption because of infe...

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